The unfortunate scenario of leaving unattended children in vehicles, such as in a car, has had, in many cases, devastating outcomes.
Each year, children are left alone in vehicles, when the driver of the vehicle, whether being the parent of the child or a caregiver, inadvertently leaves a child and still buckled up in the safety seat, while rushing to work, to run errands, or due to an ongoing telephone conversation distracting the mind of the driver when reaching his destination and leaving the vehicle.
In case of hot environmental conditions, the heating dynamics in the vehicle cause the air trapped in the vehicle, and consequently the interior temperature of the vehicle, to rise sharply in a matter of minutes. No living body can survive such extreme temperatures, let a alone a child, whose internal temperature control is different to that of an adult, and whose temperature can rise at a rate which is three to five times faster than an adult.
A child being left unattended in such extreme conditions in a vehicle may suffer from hyperthermia (heatstroke), a medical emergency which may be fatal.
According to statistics on children's safety during a journey, the age of children that have died from heatstroke while left in cars, ranges from 5 days to 14 years, while more than a half of these children were toddlers under the age of 2 years. Young children or toddlers may be left in a car, for example, when they fall asleep during a journey, or when their mind is distracted with a certain activity or game, such that in both cases they do not make any sound during at least part of the journey, and hence do not provide any reminder of their presence.
In many countries, children under the age of eight must be seated in a car seat or a booster. By countries law, toddlers under the age of three must be seated in a car seat. Young children, let alone toddlers, cannot unbuckle their seatbelt and exit the car by themselves. Moreover, toddlers, in particular, are unaware of the critical situation which they face, and hence cannot take any steps to exit the vehicle or to attract the attention of any driver/passerby.
A child being locked and left unattended in a vehicle is, in many cases, unable to unlock and open the vehicle's door to rescue himself, and can only be saved by either the driver himself, or by a passerby. However, in certain unfortunate circumstances, the driver, sometimes being the child's parent, leaves and locks the vehicle, while inadvertently leaving the child behind, still fastened to a child safety seat. Passersby generally do not pay any attention to the interior of a vehicle, and are hence usually unaware of any child locked therein. Moreover, if the person left in the vehicle is a baby or toddler, he may be calmly sitting in his safety seat, or even be sleeping, while making no noise, and therefore does not draw the driver's (leaving the car) or passersby's attention.
Some known systems have proposed solutions for detecting children left in a vehicle.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,401 discloses a system that detects the presence of an unattended child within a vehicle and when the child is so detected, disables the vehicle's door locks by preventing doors from being locked or remaining locked and sounds an alarm. The presence of a child is detected by measuring pressure on the back seat and measurements above a threshold limit signify a child is present or if any of the rear seat belts are buckled a child is detected. The system can be shut off by the driver, although the system has an over journey in the shutoff mode, so that if the temperature rises above or falls below a certain level and the presence of a child is detected, the alarm is sounded. In this mode, U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,401 discloses that the presence of the child can also be detected by a motion sensor.
Another solution is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,714,737 disclosing a warning system for notifying another person when a child is left in a child safety seat. The system recognizes a child in a child safety seat by either a pressure pad or a secured child seat lap belt. The system is activated by the release of the driver's seat belt. Should a child remain in the seat when the driver's seat belt is disengaged, the system alarms notifying the driver of such. The alarm would include a calm audio output such as a lullaby, a song, or a story. The system can be integrated into the OEM features to provide an alert escalation process using a local alert, a vehicle alert, a wireless alert, and ultimately a 911 alert.
However, the above two examples of known systems, and other known systems, necessitate the integration of external sensors in the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,401 referred to above, uses motion sensors or pressure sensors for detecting a living presence in a vehicle. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,714,737 involves a pressure pad or secured child seat lap belt. Both of these components require integration of external component in a vehicle, in addition to existing components or sensors in the car.
There is therefore a need in the art to provide for a new system and a method which does not require assembly of additional sensors in the car for detecting an unattended living presence in a vehicle.